Where's the keep Monroe Street open crowd? Discussion is taking place to close Pearl Street instead of building a pedestrian overpass at the new courthouse.
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Street-Scenes/Duval-County-Courthouse-Square/i-FxWDGKR/0/M/P1560443-M.jpg)
Pearl Street would be closed. Closing Pearl Street means if you were traveling westbound on Duval and missed turning left on Laura to head south, you'd be forced to travel six blocks out of the way to Jefferson Street, to move in that direction. For a city who wants its streets to be less confusing, that's not the way to go.Quote“If the bids come in and we can’t afford the pedestrian bridge, we do have an at-grade secured structure†as an alternative, said Goldsbury.
He described a walkway across Pearl Street in the middle of the block between the two buildings. Goldsbury said the south end of the block would have to remain open to provide access to the parking area in the courthouse. The area north of the walkway would probably be landscaped, he said.
full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=537739
we need to make sure this doesn't happen....if JTA can't figure out how to add bike facilities to Braod & Jefferson, the logical alternative is Pearl Street....which could be a great bike connector between downtown and Springfield...and only a slight jog to access the Acosta Bridge over to San Marco.
How about people cross at the crosswalk when the light changes?
Angela Corey doesn't want to mix in with the regular people. So we'll just limit the area's access to 99% of the 870,000 people living in Duval County. Or we'll pay for an elevated crosswalk. Sounds like a fair trade off.
Good grief. Don't they mix with the everyday folk now? she needs to get over it.
Quote from: thelakelander on October 12, 2012, 01:13:33 PM
Angela Corey doesn't want to mix in with the regular people.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy her one of these?
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRGv5x0BKdXJHtwNMSyjBg21H4jhHkl-HobR65f2n8ZD524WH4QQ)
Good grief. I've spent years going around the courthouse waiting for Pearl to open back up so I could drive all the way through, and now they want to close it because people don't want to walk across the flipping street?
It's a public street. How many more do you want to close? Let's see how difficult we can make it to drive downtown.
^LOL
It looks like the Pope Mobile! I'm sure she recons herself categorized as high profiled as that.
Quote from: JeffreyS on October 12, 2012, 01:09:39 PM
How about people cross at the crosswalk when the light changes?
sounds too avant-garde.
This is too dumb to acknowledge. SIX CITY BLOCKS TO CHANGE FREAKING DIRECTION?
Not that i agree with Ms. Corey....but she says her prosecuters cant safely mingle with defendant's family & friends
I do find it pathetic that we can shut a street down or find $800k for a ped overpass for Angela Corey but we can't put a sidewalk on that street.
I can't comment. You would have to censor it! I promise.
Seriously?
We're going to hack up downtown so that we can *close the street to the public* to keep Corey's crew separate from the rabble??? Seriously?!? Her personal Bridge To Nowhere wasn't an obscene enough demand to make on us? Now we have to close streets for her private use? Does Angela really have so little confidence in the JSO Deputies ability to keep people safe in and around the courthouse?
Does ANY other city have any such arrangement for their prosecutors? I'm sure there are exclusive doors and such, but suspension bridges and Red Zone streets?? We really don't need to be spending this kind of money on this sort of foolishness if it's not the norm..
Maybe should could ride the bus. Isn't there a JTA stop right out front? Then she's not out in the elements as long. :D
Quote from: tufsu1 on October 12, 2012, 06:13:47 PM
Not that i agree with Ms. Corey....but she says her prosecuters cant safely mingle with defendant's family & friends
Because exactly that hasn't been happening for the last 100+ years around here without incident?
Quote from: ChriswUfGator on October 13, 2012, 07:20:58 AM
Quote from: tufsu1 on October 12, 2012, 06:13:47 PM
Not that i agree with Ms. Corey....but she says her prosecuters cant safely mingle with defendant's family & friends
Because exactly that hasn't been happening for the last 100+ years around here without incident?
agreed....like I said, I don't agree with her
Quote from: thelakelander on October 12, 2012, 06:26:00 PM
I do find it pathetic that we can shut a street down or find $800k for a ped overpass for Angela Corey but we can't put a sidewalk on that street.
Why doesn't the sidewalk go completely around that damn block. Is it because the bus stops right there and bus riders aren't good enough to have it at the stop? Seriously, the bus stops about 10 to 20 feet before the sidewalk Begins. The grass is covered with little potholes. Frankly, I'm surprised no one was hurt yet!
because the City Council voted to add just grass to the "park" space as a temporary solution....this was a compromise vs. rebuilding Monroe Street in front of the courthouase...JTA will be adding sidewalks on the one side as part of the BRT construction next year
^If this is the case, why did they rebuild the curbs and add sidewalks throughout the rest of the property? It seems that there would be several solutions out there that would work both temporary and long term.
It still just blows my mind that the sidewalks along Pearl St were not rebuilt. I dont know how this is not an ADA issue.
It wasn't built on Broad either. The city constantly violates the ADA. You know how it is in the South, they hate anyone who's different in any way. Jim Crow still lives, but modern law has forced to refocus his prejudice and be more subtle.
JTa will take care of Broad St with the BRT project. If someone would threaten to file a law suit I gurantee they would be out there replacing the sidewalk that was there before they buillt the courthouse.
Can't we just have a simple sidewalk without that f***ing BRT?!
^^No. apparently not.
Bad news, for the future of Pearl Street in the vicinity of the courthouse. Closing Pearl Street would be a half million cheaper than constructing an elevated walkway for Angela Corey. It appears, the city was better off not delaying the reconstruction of the old federal courthouse...
Bids to renovate old Jacksonville courthouse for State Attorney's Office much higher than estimatedQuoteTurning Jacksonville’s old federal courthouse into a new home for the State Attorney’s Office will cost at least $30.9 million, based on the four bids for the job the city opened Wednesday.
That’s far above the $19.3 million the city had initially estimated, as well as higher than the $27.4 million guaranteed maximum price from the former contractor handling the work.
full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-11-21/story/bids-renovate-old-jacksonville-courthouse-state-attorneys-office-much
It's funny that a heard alot of people (not everyone) talk about closing certain streets DT to vehicular traffic in favor of a pedestrian atmosphere, well we have one. Closing two streets is pretty crazy though. First Clay for the courthouse footprint, and now Pearl.
Unfortunately, Pearl Street would be closed to the public. It would only be for attorneys to walk between buildings without having to mix with the public.
I'm starting to think we all need to just forget Downtown. Let them close every street they want. Let them take the benches out of the parks. Let's make it illegal for anyone just to be Downtown without a pass. Let's fire up those iron barred buses and round up everyone we don't like to see Downtown and take them to some camp by the landfill. Let's triple the cost of parking to insure none of the pesky retail shoppers ever come back downtown. Maybe we can put up signs that say only lawyers and criminals under arrest welcome, all others please just drive on through.
After some of what I have been reading about what the fine leaders of this city want to do, a boat on the ocean is starting to seem like the sanest place to be. Perhaps the Lakes and Fieldam's of the city can find a new place to be, a place where they will be heard and a new city can be built. Jacksonville didn't listen in 1965, and it isn't going to listen now.
WOW this courthouse is the gift that keeps on giving!
Quote from: finehoe on October 12, 2012, 01:18:08 PM
Quote from: thelakelander on October 12, 2012, 01:13:33 PM
Angela Corey doesn't want to mix in with the regular people.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy her one of these?
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRGv5x0BKdXJHtwNMSyjBg21H4jhHkl-HobR65f2n8ZD524WH4QQ)
Good idea! But tint the windows really dark so we dont have to look at her ugly face or hippo hips! >:(
It shouldn't be personal for or against Angela Corey. Against closing another downtown street, period. Pearl is one of the few through streets that goes all the way through downtown and up through the northside neighborhoods. The boondoggle courthouse is bad enough. Closing more downtown streets would just make it worse.
So who at city hall should we start contacting? The mayor? Council?
Quote from: urbaknight on October 16, 2012, 02:16:00 PM
It wasn't built on Broad either. The city constantly violates the ADA. You know how it is in the South, they hate anyone who's different in any way. Jim Crow still lives, but modern law has forced to refocus his prejudice and be more subtle.
Speaking of ADA violations...
www.news4jax.com/news/City-council-asked-to-spend-millions-to-settle-ADA-lawsuit/-/475880/17524902/-/utdqi2/-/index.html
Quote from: thelakelander on November 21, 2012, 05:56:02 PM
Bad news, for the future of Pearl Street in the vicinity of the courthouse. Closing Pearl Street would be a half million cheaper than constructing an elevated walkway for Angela Corey. It appears, the city was better off not delaying the reconstruction of the old federal courthouse...
Bids to renovate old Jacksonville courthouse for State Attorney's Office much higher than estimated
QuoteTurning Jacksonville’s old federal courthouse into a new home for the State Attorney’s Office will cost at least $30.9 million, based on the four bids for the job the city opened Wednesday.
That’s far above the $19.3 million the city had initially estimated, as well as higher than the $27.4 million guaranteed maximum price from the former contractor handling the work.
full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-11-21/story/bids-renovate-old-jacksonville-courthouse-state-attorneys-office-much
I saw that coming when I heard that our esteemed mayor was putting the project out for competitive bids. I don't know who was advising him on that decision, but that person should be fired. Of course the mayor could just want to put his mark on one of the Better Jax projects.
A tunnel system, similar to the underground warren our Washington lawmakers use, could keep the nefarious public blissfully unaware of the location of the State Attorney employees, keeping them safe from the once in a hundred year potential for bodily harm. Armored doors, keycards, guards behind gun ports. Add in a special private people mover system - the money always seems to materialize for special needs folks.